 People exaggerate both happiness and unhappiness; we are never so fortunate nor so unfortunate as people say we are.Modeste Mignon (1844), translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley, ch. XXIV: The Poet Feels That He Is Loved Too Well

 It is not a pain to give to ingrates, but it is an intolerable one to be obliged to a dishonest man.Variant translation: It is not a great misfortune to be of service to ingrates, but it is an intolerable one to be obliged to a dishonest man.Maxim 317.

 All men would then be necessarily equal, if they were without needs. It is the poverty connected with our species which subordinates one man to another. It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence."Equality" (1764).

 I can scarcely conceive (would my brain be a spellbound mirror?) a type of beauty without unhappiness. Supported by — others would say, obsessed by — these notions, one may conceive it would be difficult for me not to conclude that the most perfect type of masculine beauty is Satan, — as rendered by Milton.XVI